Pokemon Showdown presents: Balanced Hackmons-Version 2.0

Moderator

So, one day while I was laddering I ran into somerandomanimecha (who will henceforth be called manimecha) on the Balanced Hackmons ladder on PS.

(Balanced Hackmons Primer)

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Balanced Hackmons is a creation of Aesoft that is currently hosted on his server Pokemon Showdown. The basic premise is, anything goes. You can use any pokemon with any attack with any ability with 252 ev's in every stat. Their are no clauses and the only things banned are Wonderguard (technically legal on Shedinja) and ohko moves. With special abilities and moves open to everyone, many pokemon at the top of OU and even Ubers have lost usability in Balanced Hackmons to other pokemon that sport better base stats, something that is much more important in this game mode (the only deciding factors you're pokemon brings are specialised base stats and type). An excellent example of this is Shedinja who combines his 1 hp with Sturdy in order to be effectively immune to attacks. He can even build off of his immunity with Endeavor and priority attacks.

In the past I’ve joked around with manimecha and never really regarded him as a true adversary…until he interrupted my laddering spree with a crippling defeat. I went into this battle knowing that I would have my work cut out for me. It is worth noting that as hackmons does not have team preview and as such leads once again have an importance in competitive battling.

verbatim joined.
somerandomanimecha joined.
Format: Balanced Hackmons

Battle between verbatim and somerandomanimecha started!

verbatim sent out Deoxys-S!
somerandomanimecha sent out Y chromosome (Deoxys-S)!
y chromosome has Mold Breaker.
Deoxys-S has Mold Breaker.​

My Deoxys-S runs a Set of Spore/Magic Coat/Spikes/Stealth rock. The focus of my Deoxys-S is to put the oponents pokemon to sleep and proceed to set up rocks so that I can shuffle the opponent to death with Prankster Whirlwind Copycat Giratina. Knowing that manimecha is a skilled player I opt to use priority Magic Coat, reflecting his Deoxys’s Spore right back at him (getting rid of his Lum Berry) while my Flame Orb activates, making me immune to further status.

Turn 1

Deoxys-S used Magic Coat!
Deoxys-S shrouded itself with Magic Coat!

The foe's Y chromosome used U-turn!
It's super-effective! Deoxys-S lost 37% of its health!
somerandomanimecha called Y chromosome back!
somerandomanimecha sent out Dolly (Blissey)!
The foe's Dolly transformed into Deoxys-S!

Deoxys-S's Flame Orb activated!
Deoxys-S was burned!​

--> Imposter​

And I proceed to have all of my plans ruined. With her hp (Imposter uses the transforming pokemon’s hp stat) in combination with my Deoxys’s Speed, array of hazards, and Mold Breaker, (negates Magic Bounce) I could be in serious trouble. Now I’m at a stalemate, both my opponent and me have status moves and hazards with which to affect the opponent, but we both also have a priority Magic Coat that can send it back. Forgetting that he has also stolen my Deoxys’s ability I go to my Magic Bounce Choice Specs Reshiram anticipating Stealth Rocks/Spikes.

Here I get really lucky. Manimecha went with the safest move and used Magic Coat in order to guarantee that I do not get rocks on the field. Still thinking that his Deoxys can’t do anything to me I decide to scout with a Spec’d Volt Switch.

Turn 3

somerandomanimecha called Dolly back!
somerandomanimecha sent out Hit me baby one more time(Shedinja)!

Reshiram used Volt Switch!
The foe's Hit me baby one more time held on thanks to Sturdy!​

Manimecha surprises me greatly here by bringing out his Sturdy Shedinja so early in the match. Having showed Shedinja to him myself I am certain that Manimecha is running Endevour+Priority, though I am in the dark as to the other two moves and what priority he is utilizing. I decide to sac Deoxys-S to get in Giratina free (while Giratina is immune to Endevour, if I switch Giratina in and take a Spore, I lose my Lum Berry, which is very bad as I need at least 2 turns to get rid of Shedinja).

Turn 4

verbatim called Reshiram back!
verbatim sent out Deoxys-S!
Deoxys-S has Mold Breaker.

The foe's Hit me baby one more time used Endeavor!
Deoxys-S lost 63% of its health!

Deoxys-S is hurt by its burn!
Deoxys-S fainted!
verbatim sent out Giratina!​

My Giratina knows Spore, Whirlwind and Copycat to start a phasing cycle with the opponent’s team and Stealth Rocks in case Deoxys-S dies without getting to set up hazards. My game plan is to set up Stealth Rocks and Whirlwind him out, effectively killing Shedinja (Rapid Spinners are not very popular in the Hackmons Metagame). If he Spores me (using up my Lum Berry) I can go to Reshiram next turn to Magic Bounce back the Spore (using up his Lum Berry) and back to Giratina to take the Endeavour, at which point Giratina can Spore Shedinja can proceed as planned…

Turn 5

Giratina used Stealth Rock!
Pointed stones float in the air around somerandomanimecha's team!

The foe's Hit me baby one more time used Whirlwind!
Slaking was dragged out!​

Which of course doesn’t happen. Knowing that Shedinja can kill Slaking easily with Endeavour+Priority I decide to switch back to Giratina. Luckily for me since rocks aren’t up on my side of the field, if my switch in is met by another whirlwind, I can keep up the cycle of switching Giratina in until he runs out of pp and is forced to try something else.

Turn 6

verbatim called Slaking back!
verbatim sent out Giratina!

The foe's Hit me baby one more time used Endeavor!
It had no effect!​

Luckily for me, I get in free. At this point I was eager to get Shedinja out of their and decided to Whirlwind, I had a Lum Berry in case he Spored and if he decides to Whirlwind, my higher base speed will win the day.

Turn 7

The foe's Hit me baby one more time used Magic Coat!
The foe's Hit me baby one more time shrouded itself with Magic Coat!

Giratina used Whirlwind!
Giratina's Whirlwind was bounced back by Magic Coat!
Shedinja was dragged out!​

Like most of my plans for this fight, I fail to take into account that manimecha likes to use obscure moves (this had been the first time I’d seen Magic Coat off of a Deoxys-S). Knowing that neither Shedinja can manage to ohko each other and suspecting that he wouldn’t use Endevour on a ghost type, I switch to Magic Bounce Reshiram to phaze him.

Turn 8

verbatim called Shedinja back!
verbatim sent out Reshiram!

The foe's Hit me baby one more time used Whirlwind!
The foe's Hit me baby one more time's Whirlwind was bounced back by Magic Bounce!
Y chromosome (Deoxys-S) was dragged out!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Y chromosome!
y chromosome has Mold Breaker.​

At this point I make the marvelous decision of forgetting to read that his Deoxys also has Mold Breaker (something I don’t expect as beyond Aesoft, I am the only one I know who runs Mold Breaker anything) and attempt to sweep with Spec Blue Flare.

Having nothing capable of blocking his Deoxys from setting up rocks, I stay in and attempt to wake up and kill Deoxys-S

Turn 10

Reshiram is fast asleep!

The foe's Y chromosome used Whirlwind!
Slaking was dragged out!​

Until he makes the error of dragging out my Slaking. At the time of this battle I run Belly Drum/Extreme Speed/Shadow Sneak/Mach Punch Pure Power Slaking. I think for a second, and decide to Belly Drum… in front of a pokemon using Whirlwind. The logic behind my risk is relatively simple, almost every Slaking runs Pure Power Extreme Speed, at this health, Pure Power Extreme Speed will kill Deoxys-s, manimecha knows that Extreme Speed will ohko his Deoxys. I intend to Belly Drum as Deoxys flees for his life and smack whatever comes in with a Pure Power +6 Priority move.

Slaking used Belly Drum!
Slaking cut its own HP and maximized its Attack!

The foe's Doctor fabulous restored a little HP using its Leftovers!​

+6 Atk <--​

And my huge risk pays off in spades. As bulky as Giratina is, a 80bp attack coming off of base 160 attack stat with Pure Power at +6 is going to hurt…a lot.

Turn 12

somerandomanimecha: your team is exactly like aeo's
verbatim: i have a reshiram
somerandomanimecha: i don't care
verbatim: what does he have instead of reshiram ?

Slaking used Shadow Sneak!
It's super-effective! The foe's Doctor fabulous lost 94% of its health!

The foe's Doctor fabulous fainted!

somerandomanimecha sent out Dolly (Blissey)!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Dolly!
The foe's Dolly transformed into Slaking!​

+6 Atk <-- --> Imposter, +6 Atk​

In explanation of the chat, at the time of this battle, my team was nearly a mirror match of Aeo’s, except for moveset differences in our Shedinja’s and him running Shell Smash Stored Power Jirachi in contrast to my Magic Bounce Reshiram.

Getting back on topic, things are not looking good for me, as nice as it is to get his Prankster user out of the picture, I am now staring down a Slaking with Pure Power, 3 priority moves, +6 in attack, and Blissey’s HP stat. I stay in (ignorant of the fact that he is most likely wearing a Choice Scarf) and attempt to win the Speed tie with Extreme Speed.

Turn 13

The foe's Dolly used ExtremeSpeed!
Slaking lost 50% of its health!

Slaking fainted!
verbatim sent out Shedinja!​

--> Imposter, +6 Atk​

Needless to say, my plan did not go over very well. In retaliation, I send in my own Sturdy Shedinja, who I know has nothing to fear from “my” Slaking. Not knowing if he has a ghost type in the wings, I decide to Shell Smash, if a ghost type comes in, I will baton pass to Reshiram and sweep, if a non ghost comes in, should have the power to ohko w/ Ice Shard after Endeavour (It is infuriating to find out that their leftovers heals more than you’re Ice Shard can do).

Turn 14

somerandomanimecha called Dolly back!
somerandomanimecha sent out Let there be light (Arceus)!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Let there be light!
The foe's Let there be light's Drought intensified the sun's rays!

With rocks on the field and 1% hp on his pokemon, manimecha made a wise choice when he decided to sack his Arceus. In comes Deoxys and I think that the game is all but over, except…

Turn 17

The foe's Y chromosome used U-turn!
It's not very effective... Shedinja lost 100% of its health!

Shedinja fainted!
verbatim: oh right

somerandomanimecha called Y chromosome back!
somerandomanimecha sent out There might be giants (Regigigas)!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's There might be giants!
The sunlight is strong!​

Not only did I manage to forget that his Deoxys-S is one of the few that runs Mold Breaker, but it is also the only one that runs an attacking move. Assuming that Reggigigas is a Pure Power sweeper I send in my own Imposter ScarfBliss, hoping that he has a fighting move that I can use against him.

verbatim sent out Blissey!
Blissey transformed into Regigigas![/INDENT]

Imposter <--​

After seeing Shift/Extreme Speed/Sacred Fire/Sacred Sword on his moveset, I decide to go to Reshiram to allow him to set up some Shift Gears, so that my ScarfBliss can jump in latter and kill him with them.

Turn 18

verbatim called Blissey back!
verbatim sent out Reshiram!

The foe's There might be giants used Sacred Fire!
The attack of the foe's There might be giants missed!

The sunlight is strong!​

Unfortunately for me, burning his carbon copy was much more important to manimecha’s Regigigas. I decide to try and wake up with Reshiram thinking that either he’ll Shift Gear up and kill me (giving Blissey an opening to smash her way into the end game with Sacred Sword) or I’ll wake up and kill Regigigas with a Blue Flare. The next few turns will be lacking in commentary as they contain him boosting/attacking and my Reshiram sleeping.

Turn 19

The foe's There might be giants used Shift Gear!
The foe's There might be giants's Attack rose!
The foe's There might be giants's Speed sharply rose!

Reshiram is fast asleep!

The sunlight is strong!​

--> +1 Atk, +2 Spe​

Turn 20

The foe's There might be giants used ExtremeSpeed!
Reshiram lost 45% of its health!

Reshiram is fast asleep!

The sunlight is strong!​

--> +1 Atk, +2 Spe​

Turn 21

The foe's There might be giants used ExtremeSpeed!
Reshiram lost 47% of its health!

Reshiram is fast asleep!

The sunlight is strong!​

--> +1 Atk, +2 Spe​

Turn 22

The foe's There might be giants used ExtremeSpeed!
Reshiram lost 8% of its health!
Reshiram fainted!

The sunlight is strong!
verbatim sent out Blissey!
Blissey transformed into Regigigas!​

Imposter, +1 Atk, +2 Spe <-- --> +1 Atk, +2 Spe​

Turn 23

Blissey used Sacred Sword!
It's super-effective! The foe's There might be giants lost 69% of its health!

The foe's There might be giants used Sacred Fire!
Blissey lost 33% of its health!

The sunlight is strong!​

Imposter, +1 Atk, +2 Spe <-- --> +1 Atk, +2 Spe​

If one thing is clear here, it is that he really wants to burn my Blissey, but luckily fate swings in my favor and I avoid the burn yet again. knowing that with Blissey’s tremendous hp (even at “low” health) and Regigigas’s fully invested 110/110 defensive bulk I decide that I can take an Extreme Speed hit and retaliate with Sacred Sword.

Turn 24

The foe's There might be giants used ExtremeSpeed!
Blissey lost 26% of its health!

Blissey used Sacred Sword!
It's super-effective! The foe's There might be giants lost 18% of its health!
The foe's There might be giants fainted!

The sunlight is strong!
somerandomanimecha sent out Y chromosome (Deoxys-S)!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Y chromosome!
y chromosome has Mold Breaker.
verbatim: i really shouldn't of belly drummed until you're shedinja was out of the picture​

Knowing that I’m faster and that I have a +1 Pure Power 160 base stat 90 bp attack I figured that I could kill Deoxys-S straight through his resistances.

Turn 25

Blissey used Sacred Sword!
It's not very effective... The foe's Y chromosome lost 28% of its health!

The foe's Y chromosome used Spore!
Blissey fell asleep!
The sunlight is strong!​

Imposter, +1 Atk, +2 Spe <--​

Unfortunately, in hackmons you can run 252 on every stat, meaning that its surprisingly hard to ohko stuff that resists you. I know that he’s going to Whirlwind and seeing as I don’t want my Blissey to come back in via phasing I let him whirlwind me.

Turn 26

Blissey is fast asleep!

The foe's Y chromosome used Whirlwind!
Giratina was dragged out!
The sunlight is strong!​

At this point I see a great opportunity for me to seize the match, I’m going to steal his Whirlwind with Prankster Copycat and shuffle his team to death.

Turn 27

somerandomanimecha called Y chromosome back!
somerandomanimecha sent out Dolly (Blissey)!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Dolly!
The foe's Dolly transformed into Giratina!

Giratina used Copycat!
Giratina used Whirlwind!
Hit me baby one more time (Shedinja) was dragged out!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Hit me baby one more time!
The foe's Hit me baby one more time fainted!

The sunlight is strong!
somerandomanimecha sent out Dolly (Blissey)!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Dolly!
The foe's Dolly transformed into Giratina!​

--> Imposter​

Which goes over fine until he gets his Blissey in.

Turn 28

The foe's Dolly used Copycat!
The foe's Dolly used Whirlwind!
Blissey was dragged out!
The sunlight is strong!​

--> Imposter​

At this point I am extremely glad that he hadn’t taken the time to set up hazards, I sit back and let him spin his heart out, knowing that four more phazes won’t kill me.

Turn 29

The foe's Dolly used Copycat!
The foe's Dolly used Whirlwind!
Giratina was dragged out!
The sunlight is strong!​

--> Imposter​

Turn 30

The foe's Dolly used Copycat!
The foe's Dolly used Whirlwind!
Blissey was dragged out!
The sunlight is strong!​

--> Imposter​

Turn 31

somerandomanimecha: THIS IS FUN
The foe's Dolly used Copycat!
The foe's Dolly used Whirlwind!
Giratina was dragged out!
The sunlight is strong!​

--> Imposter​

Turn 32

The foe's Dolly used Copycat!
The foe's Dolly used Whirlwind!
Blissey was dragged out!
The sunlight is strong!​

--> Imposter​

Turn 33

The foe's Dolly used Struggle!
A critical hit! Blissey lost 27% of its health!
The foe's Dolly lost 25% of its health!
Blissey is fast asleep!
The sunlight is strong!​

At this point I’m fairly certain that he will switch his Blissey out to Deoxys S, and as such I switch in my Giratina hoping to start the phaze chain again.

--> Imposter​

Turn 34

somerandomanimecha called Dolly back!
somerandomanimecha sent out Y chromosome (Deoxys-S)!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Y chromosome!
verbatim called Blissey back!
verbatim sent out Giratina!
The sunlight is strong!​

At this point, I make a grave realization, of the four pokemon left, (my Giratina/Blissey and his Deoxys/Blissey) the only pokemon left with an attacking move is his Deoxys. All he has to do to win is to make sure that his Blissey dies first to rocks and spam away with U-turn until my Giratina and Blissey succumb. It looked pretty bleak until I saw something, something so far fetch'd that it may just work. Needless to say I jumped at the opportunity to turn the match around.

In short, he was expecting to win…

Turn 35

Gary Oak joined.
Giratina used Copycat!
Giratina used Struggle!
A critical hit! The foe's Y chromosome lost 22% of its health!
Giratina lost 25% of its health!
The foe's Y chromosome fainted!

The sunlight is strong!
verbatim: yes
somerandomanimecha sent out Dolly (Blissey)!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Dolly!
The foe's Dolly transformed into Giratina!​

That was a unique and exciting match for probably the coolest metagame I've ever heard of! I enjoyed it immensely! I do want to point out that it seemed a little hard to follow at points, mainly due to the sprites/imposter parts, but they were forgiven.

interesting read, got me interested in hackmons
one thing about your whole endgame scenario, couldn't you sac blissey to U-turn, and then bring giratina in and kill him with prankster copycat u-turn? good read anyway

Thank you for drawing attention to the extraordinary meta which is hackmons. I personally think the greatest strategy in the game is SleepShuffling, and my personal Deoxys-S runs Dragon Tail over Magic Coat to set up hazards and constantly switch after a turn to reset the opponent's Sleep counter.

Moderator

I was hoping you'd post this soon. Good thing aeo banned wonder guard because his shell smash jirachi, completely immune to priority, was unbelievably broken. Anyway nice battle, good to see this has changed so much since last I played it.

This warstory was great, nice job! My only critique is that the format was kind of messy and it was hard to read what happened each turn, and then find where your comments were. But it was still a nice read :]

Moderator

That was a unique and exciting match for probably the coolest metagame I've ever heard of! I enjoyed it immensely! I do want to point out that it seemed a little hard to follow at points, mainly due to the sprites/imposter parts, but they were forgiven.

interesting read, got me interested in hackmons
one thing about your whole endgame scenario, couldn't you sac blissey to U-turn, and then bring giratina in and kill him with prankster copycat u-turn? good read anyway

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I thought about this for a while and it appears that you were correct. The only problem is that I wouldn't of caught that myself. Until I thought to Copycat Struggle my plan was simply to hope I win the pp stall war.

While interesting, it also was unbelievably confusing.
While I will watch this topic, I think I will pass on joining this mind**** metagame

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One thing to consider is that as alien as hackmons is insofar as what pokemon are viable, their are a lot less viable pokemon to choose from, requiring you to learn about less pokemon. Right now hackmons is even less diverse than DDPt ubers.

My main suggestion to you would be to edit the log and remove all the debug lines. They clutter up the log and make it kind of hard to tell what's going on in the battle.

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Thanks, I originally wanted to leave all the debug lines in and give a little speech about how they change pokemon battling in comparison to cartridges/PO (good luck bluffing with an Expert Belt) but it didn't come up in the battle. I think i've brought it down to manageable levels but if anyone disagrees I'd be more than willing to fix it.

Thank you for drawing attention to the extraordinary meta which is hackmons. I personally think the greatest strategy in the game is SleepShuffling, and my personal Deoxys-S runs Dragon Tail over Magic Coat to set up hazards and constantly switch after a turn to reset the opponent's Sleep counter.

Click to expand...

I've never been a fan of Dragon Tail (non-perfect Acc has a tendency of screwing things up for me) but friends of mine have also tried Dragon Tail and gotten good results, albeit not on Deoxys-S.

I was hoping you'd post this soon. Good thing aeo banned wonder guard because his shell smash jirachi, completely immune to priority, was unbelievably broken. Anyway nice battle, good to see this has changed so much since last I played it.

This warstory was great, nice job! My only critique is that the format was kind of messy and it was hard to read what happened each turn, and then find where your comments were. But it was still a nice read :]